Thank You, Mystique
by Lysana
Summary: When Magneto broke free of his plastic prison, it was one of the most triumphant moments he had ever known. But in all his pride and elation, he didn't forget that he never could have escaped without the help of the one he loved. Magneto&Mystique shippy!


Title: Thank You, Mystique

Summary: When Magneto broke free of his plastic prison, it was one of the most triumphant moments he had ever known. But in all his pride and elation, he didn't forget that he never could have escaped without the help of the one he loved. Magneto&Mystique shippy!

* * *

Toad bounced into the room. "Hey, Mysty, I got a letter for ya!" he said impertinently.

Mystique turned and looked at him, unimpressed. "You realize that I will still kill you if you ever use that nickname in front of Magneto or any of Xavier's people?" she said calmly.

Toad stuck his tongue out at her. She could tell he wasn't really annoyed, because he didn't stick it out much farther than a normal human's tongue would have reached. He handed her the letter, in a small, plain white envelope, and turned to go. Then he stopped, halfway to the door, and looked back at Mystique over his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah," he said casually. "I almost forgot. There's a package too." He chuckled nastily in that almost good-natured way he had, making Mystique realize that he hadn't forgotten at all, but had been toying with her.

Mystique reached out a slender, blue-scaled hand and caught the package as he tossed it. It was a more or less flat, lightweight oblong, rounded at the corners and wrapped neatly in brown paper. The paper was stiff enough to be somewhat crumpled around the package despite the care with which it had obviously been wrapped.

She looked up from her brief examination of the package to see that Toad was gone, no doubt off to catch flies again. She shrugged and looked back at the package. Carefully tearing open the wrapper, she caught sight of a gleam of silver.

No, not silver; steel. Fine, polished steel in the shape of a small oval mirror. She looked down at it and smiled: she would recognize the handiwork of Magneto's mind anywhere.

The mirror was a knife-thin plate of completely reflective steel, with a thick, rounded decorative border of the same metal. Covering most of its surface was an exquisite image of a lily, its blossom tinted a gleaming shade of steel-blue. Magneto had obviously rearranged the molecules themselves to make the metal shift into that color. It must have taken a great deal of effort and care to accomplish so fine a job, even for someone of his extreme, sophisticated skill.

Mystique, smiling, turned the mirror over. On the other side, in thin, elegant etched letters that Magneto had obviously also formed with the skill of his mind, it read:

_The proudest moments are those of shared accomplishment._

Feeling a stiff, folded edge of paper in her left hand as she stared at the beautiful mirror she held in her right, Mystique suddenly remembered that the package had come with a letter. She turned her attention to the envelope and opened it. Inside was a sheet of paper carefully folded into threes, covered on the inner side with Magneto's hurried but exquisitely precise handwriting.

_Dear Mystique,_

_Your steadfast loyalty has been invaluable to me over the years, but I have never thanked God so fervently that you are on my side as I did today.  
__I would never reveal this to anyone but you, but I felt as helpless and humiliated in that ridiculous plastic bubble as I did years ago in the prison camp, when I was only a boy.  
__I recognized your touch immediately when you sent me in that foolish guard with the gift of iron in his blood. I've never smiled so hard, I think, as when I broke apart the plastic walls with this iron and then sailed on a disk of it, away and out of my intolerable prison.  
__Thank you, Mystique. I cannot tell you in words how grateful I am for your gift which allowed me to use my own power to escape from that trap. So I have decided to return that gift to you.  
__If Toad remembers to give it to you, you will find the iron you sent me inside a small, paper-wrapped package. I'm sending it back to you, my dear, in a shape which will hopefully allow you to see yourself reflected as I see you.  
__I have no more time to write. I must dodge the growing swarm of the normals' police and set my own plans in motion before they or Charles and his deluded mutants can create too much of an inconvenience for us. I will contact you soon in person. Before that time, you know what to do. I have every faith in you._

_Love, Magneto_

Mystique closed her shocking golden eyes, pressing the letter close to her chest. _Love, Magneto..._ her heart whispered in echo. She opened her eyes, held the piece of folded paper up to her lips, and softly kissed it. She knew she would always treasure it. She was glad beyond words that she had been able to help her beloved Magneto - Eric, as she occasionally allowed herself to think of him - to escape from his prison.

She looked down again at the mirror in her right hand, looking into it this time, not just at the surface. She saw a vision that, before she could catch herself and try to apply her usual modesty, she recognized as startlingly beautiful. Her own face was reflected in the mirror's steel, superimposed on the blue lily that Magneto had added. Her delicately scaled skin showed as a deeper, brighter blue than the lily's cold-steel color, creating a combined image of blue-on-blue loveliness.

Mystique smiled again in delight, her gold eyes lighting up with an actual, sunlike glow that reflected as metallic orange in the steel of the mirror. _Thank __you__, Magneto,_ she thought. _For allowing me to be a part of your life._

For now, Mystique served Magneto faithfully as one of his Brotherhood of Mutants. But she knew that someday, once Magneto and the Brotherhood finally managed to bring peace to the world in spite of the interference of Charles Xavier and his followers, she and Magneto would be able to live their lives together as they had always wanted: not as a valiant freedom fighter and his loyal supporter...

But simply as a man and a woman in love.

-The End-


End file.
